Only Fools and Horses Cuts – Final Part 11

Only Fools and Horses Cuts – Part 11

Over the last few months we have seen a breakdown of all the lost scenes of only fools and Horses from the current released DVD in the UK.

Most fans would love to see the originals put back into the DVD releases.

Additionally John Sullivan’s commentary along with production comments must be a great way to provide some extras on a re-release of this wonderful comedy.

We now continue from last week in out final part

A Royal Flush (continued)

So far we have seen a lot of cuts from A Royal Flush Episode. Our last part will look at all the cuts from the rest of the episode making 18 minutes in total!

The next scene occurs in the clothing shop. The first cut in this scene occurs when the shop keeper is on the phone to sir Alan. Strangely “No, No” has been cut from the phone call. Uncle Albert’s line has also been cut:

Uncle Albert: “Don’t you worry Rodney, By the time he’s finished with you, you’ll look just like one of them!”

Rodney: “That’s what I’m frightened off.”

Don’t you worry Rodney

….

In the next scene, we see the shooting party, But lines have also been cut from this sequence. After the line “I was rather pleased with that myself Patterson.” The following has been cut:

Charles: “Pure luck, Henry, Pure luck!”

Henry: “Ah, thank you, Charles. I thought you’d clear up the mystery. Go on. Let’s see if you can do better.”

Further into the scene small shots are cut showing Rodney moving strangely.

Rodney acting strange

Further cuts occur in the tent scene after the line “No need, no need, sir. I have my own weapon.” This results in the following lines being lost:

Del: “Albert, Would you mind?”

Uncle Albert: “Albert, would you mind. He couldn’t care bloody less whether I minded or not! Fight for your country, go down in shark-infested seas and what thanks do you get? I tell you, no thanks, even from your own relatives. They turn you into a gun wallah! here you are, and don’t ask for nothing else.”

Del: “Thank you my good man. you may retire.”

Uncle Albert: “I thought I’d done that bloody ages ago!”

Del: “He’s been with us for years. It’s a bit like the income tax.

Thank you my good man, you may retire

After the shooting scene and Del’s explanation of where he got the gun a few cuts occur. In the original, Del says Iggie Iggins name twice, on the DVD he only says it once. At the end of this scene, the following is cut:

Del: “Right. Any smoked-salmon sandwiches there, pal? All right?”

Any smoked-salmon sandwiches there, pal

In the next scene, we see Rodney and Del coming down the stairs, the following has been cut from this scene after the line “Nothing. I’m just going to help you make a good impression.”

Del: “That’s all.”

Rodney: “I do not want to make a bloody impression!”

Dell: “You will make an impression tonight and you can cut that language out for a start””

….

Dell: “Cor! Look at the lungs on that! All right come on then!”

Cor! Look at the lungs on that

….

Cuts are also made in the conversation between Dell and Henry.

Del: “Have you seen that cartoon of his? Laugh” My old ribs ached for days. Of course, he did the old Mona Lisa as well you know?”

Henry: “Ah really?”

Del: “She’s the one with… you know, she’s got the energetic smile. You know you can’t tell whether she’s about to grin or whether she’s sucking a sweet. That one.”

Uncle Albert: “Him, You must be joking. He thinks a clippers something you do your hair with! No, I’m the only one in our family who ever went to sea. I tell a lie. My grandmother’s brother was safety officer on the Titanic. Yeah, but I never talk about it.”

My grandmother’s brother was safety officer on the Titanic. Yeah, but I never talk about it.

The beginning of the dinner scene has been moved to after the scene where Del and Rodney argue over Del drinking too much. The following has been cut off the end of the clip:

Henry: “It’s just a phase, if you know what I’m saying.”

Man is background: “Yeah, Right. (In a different conversation.)”

The clip of the waiter putting his foot in the peas has been removed.

It’s just a phase, if you know what I’m saying.

After Del and Rodney argue about Del enjoying himself, the following has been cut:

Del: “Hold her hand.”

Rodney: “What.”

Del: “Hold her hand.”

Rodney: “Shut up.”

Shut up

….

When Del is telling the woman sitting next to him about Rodney and Vicky getting engaged. The following is cut before the line “Keep it under your tiara!”:

Del: “That’s the ugly one over there in the white.”

….

Dell moving his finger around the edge of his glass, causing everyone to look up has also been removed along with the following lines:

Later in the scene, when Dell is tapping his glass has been removed, with the following lines lost:

Del: “Hear that tone, yeah, great aint it. Makes you proud to be British.”

Makes you proud to be British

….

Del: “Don’t worry, We’ll pop out later, won’t we?”

We’ll pop out later

Within the conversation about the football box, the following has been cut:

Man: “No, I meant a private box in the new stand!”

Rodney: “No, I’m usually in the shed.”

Man: “Yes, I’ve often seen the chaps in the shed. Looks great fun! I’m a great Dixon fan.”

Dell: “Oh yeah, Which Dixon’s that?”

Man: “Well, Dixon of Chelsea!”

Del: “Him? I’d rather play Dixon of Dock Green! He can’t dribble like Jimmy Greaves could!”

Man: “Well maybe not, but he’s still a fine player. I mean, he’s good in the air!”

Del: “So was Biggles!”

I’d rather play Dixon of Dock Green

….

The following is cut when Del, Rodney and Henry are talking about Rodney’s sport history:

Henry: “That’s jolly interesting. Rodney, which area of athletics?”

Rodney: “Uh… Well it was…”

Del: “It was all sorts. All sorts, weren’t it, Rodney? It was running and jumping over things and chucking things about. Oh, yeah, all sorts.”

….

Rodney: “Well, It wasn’t actually a university.”

From the scene when Dell explains about Rodney’s drug incident, only two lines remain, the rest has been cut resulting in the following lines being lost:

Del: “No Rodney, no Its important that these good people know the whole truth. … What he was found in possession of, All right, no, they weren’t. They belonged to this Chinese tart. The story, you see that he went down to her room, right to buy her a box of chalks and she said, come in Rodney, have a puff on this. And before you know what happened the old SGB, they burst in and he was caught, band to the rights with a reefer, you know, alla dente! I mean, he was two or three miles away in a black Maria before he even said, like, you know, man or anything like that. Oh yeah. Now, I just wanted you all to know, you know, about his drugs conviction just in case, you know it was ever brought up by the gutter press. You know, I just want you to know that he was done up like a kipper. Weren’t you, eh? All right, Good boy. Anyway, listen, let’s liven the proceedings up a bit, shall we, eh?”

no Its important that these good people know the whole truth

“Eh? A little recitation entitled: “Don’t worry, mother, your son will soon be back. He’s sailing ’round the world in a Grimsby fishing smack! Now, listen, I’ll tell you now… No, that’s the one I’ll tell you… You’ll like this one. Listen. Listen. Ahem. Ready? The boy stood on the burning deck, the water shone like glass. A burning ember flew down his neck and burnt him on the ankle! You thought I was going to say arse, didn’t you?. That’s the joke, you see? Listen, I’ve got another one. Listen, you’ll like this one. Did you hear about the Irish bloke on a skiing holiday? There’s this Irish bloke, right, and he won a… Won a holiday in a contest of the some sort or another. To go skiing, right? You’ll love this! This is a killer!”

You’ll love this! This is a killer!

Henry: “TROTTER! I want a word with you outside now!”

Del: “Yeah. All right. All right, Henry, Right, right. I’ll see you later. Now I’ll clinch the deal.

When Vicky asks Rodney if he is still staying overnight, a small line is cut:

Hi just brought this version on BBC 2004 dvd and yes I can see where the cuts are made but you can buy it at e bay full version according to someone on amazon reviews or get full version from american import on amazon along with series 5/6 so..depends if you saw the full version in 1986 which I did, its a pity Mr John Sullivan god rest his should didn’t rewrite it again really of unhappy with it the edits should have been done before first viewing, ( I mean this in a nice way) but if you view the full script here you get more scenes we didn’t see even before the 1986 edits like in the van the next day after Junie had been sick in the theatre watching the opera because I’ve read the script here!

Just rewatched this on Netflix for the first time in years, having grown up with a full VHS collection of the series. I had no idea about the cuts until watching the episode again just now. I kept feeling like things I remembered didn’t seem to quite match up with what I was seeing, but didn’t really clock it until the dinner scene missed out its climax with Henry yelling at Del Boy.

I always really loved this episode actually, as Del really does genuinely go too far. I always felt it was actually a pretty brave piece of writing, and a real emotional high (low?) point in Del and Rodney’s relationship. I’ve now found out that Sullivan made the edits as he felt Del was too boorish, but that’s what I liked about it – he totally misjudges the situation and genuinely hurts his little brother, and – though they patch up – the episode basically ends there. Sitcoms can suffer from the need to restore total equilibrium at the end of an episode, and I always respected this one for avoiding that somewhat. But this 2004 edit turns the episode into just another hour long special, rather than a notably emotional occasion for the Trotters.

All of these scenes are intact in my VHS version. How can this episode work without these scenes in? Must be alot of unexplained stuff.

One cut that really annoys me is the original music used every time Rodney sees Damien. With the wrong music it doens’t have the same impact. The BBC needs to sort themselves out and remember that its us the taxpayers that pays their way.

UNBELIEVABLE! 18 minutes of cuts. The BBC has ruined this wonderful series completely. Disgraceful.

What this list unfortunately fails to say is exactly by all these cuts were deemed neceassary. So the BBC even hasn’t got the decency to explain why!

I would never get the DVD series of this. Thankfully I have all the 80’s episodes on VHS which I bought in the early/mid 90’s – not the feature length editions like this one sadly though – and they don’t seem to have any cuts in them. So I will convert them at some stage to DVD rather than buy the DVDs which clearly have been bastardised.

Sorry but the cuts in this episode have absolutely nothing to do with the BBC. It was personally cut by John Sullivan because he hated the original. In fact the only reason the original cut existed is because it had to fit a particular time slot.

The BBC has reached a new agreement regarding music it its content, so at this point the BBC could release an uncut DVD set if they wanted to. The problem is the cost to do this, they would have to re-create the DVD’s, subtitle them, get them classified. It would cost quite a bit, 2 Entertain say they cannot justify the cost to do this. If there are any Only Fools fans out there who are rich? :). The only hope is that the BBC will sell the DVD rights to somebody else, like Network DVD, who will then release uncut episodes, or that the BBC will find the funds to re-release the set.

Surely the costs would be easily brought back in sales.
It does feel a bit more positive knowing the rights to music are now solved,and would like to assume BBC did this in order to secure them for future release.

What a shame it takes decades to resolve the Only Fools and Horses music issue
Thanks for keeping us updated Ronnie

The BBC still have the top sitcom ever as voted by Joe Public on there hands.
Surely all the uncut versions along with the commentary from actors, producers and location staff would make it a very worthy release on DVD

They could even release certain episodes on Blu-Ray if the film prints still exist. Miami Twice and To Hull and Back were shot on film. Both episodes can be converted to full HD, but only if the film can be found. Would look so good on blu-ray.